All Realms Lead to Kansas
by prettydamnlame
Summary: Felix has somehow walked straight from Neverland right onto Dorothy "Dot" Gayle's family estate, Kansas, on the outskirts of Storybrooke. Dot doesn't quite trust Felix's sly smiles or his strange story about he managed to Cross Realms from Neverland to Kansas, but against her own better judgement, allows him to stay until he can figure out a way to get back to where he came from.
1. Chapter 1

**Set around the events of 3.07, _Dark Hollow_. **

* * *

_"Head to the other side of the island and deliver the supplies_." That was the last instruction Felix had heard from Pan, and it felt like an age ago. The Lost Boy had an eerie feeling, as if he'd been walking for countless hours, days even. He couldn't be sure what day it was anymore – not that it mattered on Neverland, not really. Somewhere during all his time spent continuously moving, his surroundings had slowly and then abruptly changed from tropical island fernery to tall, thick-trunked trees and sparse woodland undergrowth. Felix was _absolutely_ sure he had never been wherever he was now. And wherever he was now, he was beginning to suspect it was no longer Neverland.

Just as abruptly as Neverland's tropical ferns and palms had given way to thick woodland scrubbery, a huge white structure suddenly loomed ahead through the crowd of trees; a sight that caused Felix to break into a jog. Bursting from the treeline onto a tidy green grassed plateau, the blonde boy looked up at a double-storey building, with a porch that wound all the way around. The woods fell away from the huge house for about ten yards either side, an impossibly perfectly manicured expanse of green grass. There were no signs of anyone around, so the Lost Boy walked the length of the house curiously, trailing his fingers against it gingerly.

Once he had rounded the side of the house, he was met by a long gravel driveway that disappeared into the woods beyond, and also ran straight up to a wide set of stairs that met the front porch and what he assumed was a very old, very grand front door that stood, peculiarly, wide open.

Felix glanced back down the length of the driveway and debated whether to follow it back to the words or venture inside the house.

"_Hey_." The voice was aggressive and suspicious in equal parts. "Who are you? What are you doing on my grounds?"

Felix looked up. A girl had just stepped out of the wide-open double door and onto the marble staircase that led down to the gravel driveway, and she was looking at him with open hostility.

He took the opportunity to force down his own surprise as she paced down a couple more of the steps to look at him a little more closely.

Felix stared at her for a few more moments before answering: she was small and petite, with brown hair that ended in loose ringlets around her shoulders and framed a flat, angular face set with distinctly unremarkable grey eyes.

"I was... _walking_..." The blonde boy was all too aware of how vague he must be sounding. "I must've got lost though, truly, because I have no idea how I came to be on your grounds, but _this - _" Felix gestured to the towering building the girl stood so imperiously on the steps of – "is the first real structure I've seen in quite some time."

"What do you mean? Where did you _come_ from?"

Felix hesitated, then answered truthfully. Nothing could sound more peculiar than the truth. "Neverland, of course."

The girl let out a burst of laughter, which quieted after a few moments when she realised this stranger was actually quite serious. _But Neverland was where Snow, Charming and Emma had ran off to with the help of Mr. Gold, Regina and that pirate, _Dot thought quickly._ How could there be another portal that Mr. Gold hadn't known about? One that Regina wasn't controlling?_

"Well, you're in Storybrooke now." Dot said quickly before she had paused for too long. "Well, _technically_, you're in Kansas, which is the name of all this - " she waved a hand around to indicate everything Felix could see. "It's my family's estate."

"How does a girl so small come to live in a place so big?" He asked incredulously.

"I wasn't always on my own. I had my family, and friends once." She all but turned her back on him and climbed back up the stairs until she stood level on the porch once more.

"Once?" Felix asked with a smile.

"Once." Her voice became sharp again. "Now it's just me and Toto." The girl clicked her fingers and a huge, hairy Tibetan Mastiff, complete with thick winter coat and curly tail trotted through the same door Dot herself had stepped through. On seeing the stranger, the dog's head angled and a slight curl split his usually soft features. "And Toto doesn't like strangers. What's your _name_?" Her eyes caught the glint of the sun as it set over the woods and they seemed to flash almost threateningly in his direction.

"Felix." He smiled again.

"_Just _Felix?"

"Just Felix." He repeated coolly, deciding his smiles were getting him nowhere with this girl. "And _your_ name?"

"Dorothy Gayle." The girl's head twitched a little and she corrected herself instantly. "Dot."

"Dot. Suits you." He added thoughtfully.

"Listen, _just_ Felix, I can't help you." One hand fell to the Mastiff's head and the other pointed to the end of the driveway in the distance. "If you follow that road, it'll take you into town – into Storybrooke. You can catch a bus to wherever it is you think you came from."

"I told you, I'm not _from_ here at all!" The blonde boy replied, riled instantly. "I've got no idea _how_ I got here, let alone how to get _back_ to Neverland."

"What, and you want some kind of pity from me? You expect me to _help_ you?" Dot's voice raised just as his had, and her chin jutted out defensively like she was steeling herself for a fight. "You're talking to the wrong girl. I've stumbled through the Realms too, pretty boy, and I know first hand it's not something you just do by accident. It's _painful_ and it's _difficult_ and it's pretty damn obvious when you _do_ Cross Over!" Her mouth snapped shut as soon as she had said this and she looked furious - only this time, Felix suspected, at herself.

"Listen, I came from Neverland, from somewhere in _those_ woods." He'd raised a finger and pointed behind Dot, indicating the trees behind her house. "So I'm not leaving this place, _Kansas_, until I can figure out a way to get _back_ through there."

Toto let out a low growl and Dot shushed him. "_Listen_, just Felix, you_ say_ you walked straight from Neverland to Kansas. Meaning, that according to you, there's some kind of _portal_ out in the woods." She surmised, all with a tone of heavy disbelief.

"That's what I've been_ trying_ to say but I just don't think you believe me, Dot." Felix put one foot on the stairs leading up to the porch and smiled up at her once more. Toto growled again and the blonde boy let out a strained laugh. "As much as your dog seems to dislike me, I promise, I am _not_ making this up. I came through a portal on your grounds, Dot. That means trouble for the_ both_ of us." Felix felt, for the first time, a little surge of hope.

Dot glanced up at the now rapidly darkening sky and said curtly, "Alright. You can stay at Kansas tonight, but tomorrow you're going into Storybrooke, or back to the woods, to figure out your own way home. _Deal_?"

"Deal." Felix repeated, lying as easily as he smiled.

Toto growled.


	2. Chapter 2

Felix woke the next morning on the couch Dot had pointed at last night before disappearing up the grand staircase. He wasn't surprised when he'd heard a heavy lock slide into place upstairs, shrugging off the girl's obvious distrust of him and pulling off his heavy cape to sleep under. She was right not to trust him, after all: he wasn't here to make friends. He needed to get back to Neverland. Back to Pan.

The room the blonde boy had slept in was a grand, sumptuously furnished sitting room that opened up right off the grand entrance hall of the huge white house. Walking into the entrance hall on fresh legs from a more or less peaceful night's sleep, Felix noticed the front door was already standing wide open. Suspecting that Dot was up and had left the main house already, he pulled the door closed after him and set off in the direction of a row of out buildings on the right side of the house.

"I'm going into town." Felix announced to the empty air inside the stables, on the off chance that Dot was inside. He'd already checked the other two out buildings, one crammed full of what he guessed may be farming equipment, and the other with a collection of cars and motorcycles going to rust and ruin.

"Have a blast... Storybrooke is a real riot." The girl's voice met his hearing even though he couldn't see her. It was laden with sarcasm and disinterest. "Also, if you find somewhere else to stay, don't pass it up on my account."

He finally found her in one of the furthermost horse stalls, patiently brushing a monstrously huge Clydesdale that stood almost a full hand higher than her at its shoulder. She wore jeans and a long white shirt, her hair pulled up hastily in a bun. He saw a smear of something black across her cheek as he glanced over at him on his arrival.

Toto, the huge Tibetan Mastiff, sat lazily in the corner of the stall, but instantly snapped to attention at the sight of Felix peering over the stall door.

"Do you surround yourself with ridiculously large animals on purpose, or is it just all a coincidence?" The blonde boy asked pointedly, leaning over the stall with the same casual air he asked all of his questions with.

"There's no such thing as coincidence." Dot replied evenly, glancing over at him again for only a moment. "Like I said, Felix, have fun in town. Just follow the driveway down, and you're right on the main road."

"Don't miss me too much." Felix shot back.

The only reply he got to this was a low, dry laugh. "I'll try not to. Once you're gone, I'm going to take Goliath out on the grounds and see if I can see anything that would indicate some kind of... _portal_...like you mentioned yesterday." She paused and turned to him with a peculiar, searching look. "Remember what I said, Felix. If someone offers you a bed, take it. I don't need you hanging around while I try to figure out what's going on in Kansas."

* * *

The two dwarves, one decidedly grumpy and the other a little air-headed, set about questioning his story instantly.

"You're staying with Dot? Dorothy?" The dwarf narrowed his eyes at the lanky blonde boy. "Dot _hates_ having other people around. She swore off having company after she lost her friends in the O.Z."

"That's why she lives so far out of Storybrooke." The other dwarf chimed in.

Felix had been in town for less than twenty minutes and had already been directed to, then turned away, from the Sherriff's Office and a peculiar little shop called Mr. Gold's Pawnbroker & Antiquities. Now he was at Granny's, a diner right in the centre of Storybrooke, as a last resort. He had been pointed toward the place by an off-puttingly cheery man called Archie Hopper.

"The O.Z.?" Felix repeated questioningly, raising an eyebrow.

The first dwarf pursed his lips and looked back to his mug of coffee. "Listen, if Dot hasn't told you... then I highly doubt she'd want anyone else telling you. Just – don't hurt her. And don't aggravate her. Or you'll have this entire town to answer to."

Felix was more and more confused the more he heard about Dot. It was even more confusing than actually being around her. "But I thought she hated all of you?"

"She doesn't _hate_ us. She's just thinks she's protecting us by staying away."

"Protecting you from who?"

"From herself." The second dwarf added quietly. The first dwarf hit him around the head sharply.

"Now we've _definitely_ said enough. Let's get out of here."

* * *

As Felix walked the long road back to Kansas, having found no help from anyone in town – most people seemed to agree that who he needed to speak to was Mr. Gold, but he had, apparently, left town for a while. No one would tell him where. No one would tell him why.

The blonde boy broke into a jog as he saw the huge white house looming at the end of the driveway, the lush green grass spreading out until the darkness of the forest subsumed the undergrowth. For some reason inexplicable to him, he was glad to be back.


End file.
